Virtual Attendance System: How It Helps To Increase Virtual Workforce Productivity?

• By Amardeep Singh Sandhu

• 11th March 2023

Attendance and leave management are important HR activities and necessary components of payroll input. HR may need help to combine diverse attendance inputs from various recording methods, such as manual attendance registers, ID cards, or biometric scanners, across all business sites.

Being a Human Resource Manager, virtual workplace productivity is one thing you cannot take complacently. It drives your organization toward its business goals. Running an organization is quite meaningless without the purpose of achieving business goals. Workplace productivity is directly related to employees and combines efficient time management and focus on fulfilling tasks.

Let’s focus our attention on one interesting statistic from anonymous research, an average employee stays productive only for around 2 hours and 53 minutes. Think about it, out of 8 hours a day, employees are less productive for 5 hours than they should be. It is not a favorable scenario for an organization. Moreover, productivity can fall in the case of virtual modes of operation.

Out of all the virtual workplace-related activities like chit-chat between co-workers, attendance is one task that consumes employees’ productive time.

So, what’s the solution?

Just like your business is running in a virtual mode. It is beneficial to adopt a virtual attendance system.

Why so? Let’s find out!

It Helps to Manage the Remote Staff

Soon after the pandemic hit, the world got introduced to a new mode of business operations, i.e., work from home. Attendance is one of the biggest issues when it comes to managing a virtual workforce. Efficient management is directly proportional to the rate of workplace productivity. Better management leads to higher productivity.

Equipping your team with a centralized attendance system makes it easier to manage the workforce by keeping an adequate record of working hours by employee, project, or any other required parameter.

Promise of Accuracy

To ensure higher accuracy, use attendance software that includes features such as payroll connection and digital timesheets. In addition, use web-based portals for timekeeping and biometric technology that are appropriate for your staff, and your software should be able to handle various input types.

Employees should be able to check their PTO, and supervisors should be able to receive notifications concerning overtime if remote data for timekeeping is accessible and integrated with the right and relevant systems. In addition, missed punch alerts assist both employees and supervisors in resolving issues quickly.

Easy Scheduling

Traditionally, office scheduling was rather straightforward. That is why we have terminology like daily office hours. However, remote or hybrid work becomes more challenging, yet flexibility boosts productivity significantly.

Encourage remote workers to use windowed work to manage their home and family requirements without using business time. It would be best if you had a more flexible online schedule to coordinate meetings and collaboration when everyone works slightly different hours.

Enhances Accountability

Having a virtual attendance system in place helps to review and improve the remote workforce’s time management. Efficient time management practice helps to enhance productivity. Managers or supervisors can keep track of employees’ activities which further helps to overcome the bottlenecks. Moreover, it helps to understand where employee engagement and productivity lags and identify reliable solutions to address the issues.

Easy Access

When remote workers are denied access to their records, they may become irritated. They can monitor their records using an online time and attendance system to see how much vacation time they have left if a specific medical treatment is covered by their insurance or to make simple modifications to their personal records. They can also check in when they suspect a disparity in hours paid and resolve concerns more swiftly due to accurate record keeping.

Quick & Easy Scheduling

Managers can become more effective at scheduling by allowing more freedom. For example, if your customer support team works remotely, you can use peak demand times to book additional employees and cut staff during downtimes precisely. Staff should only work when needed or when they are most productive. You may plan your staffing needs for weeks and avoid problems like conflicting schedules. Staff shortages will never catch you off guard if you streamline your system with other areas of your employee leave and holiday plans.

A Curb On Costs

Time and attendance systems can be tailored to help you keep costs connected with special projects under control. For example, you can limit hours and distribute time spent more effectively to guarantee that you stay within budget. In addition, adjustments can be made, or staff can be notified when they run out of time due to financial constraints.

While a remote worker may appear less productive, you can maintain control and enhance productivity optics with the correct time and attendance solution.

A virtual attendance system helps calculate total work time, late-in and early-out logs, and overtime performed per the applicable rules applied to individuals or groups of employees.

We have successfully installed an attendance solution for our teams at Deftsoft, which means we have the experience and unique on-hand knowledge to install attendance systems for our clients.